Thirumazhisai Alwar
Among works of the 12 Alwars, Thirumazhisai Alwar's verses establish the truth that Sriman Narayana is the Supreme Being as per our vedic tradition and I dedicate this blog to offer words as flowers at his lotus feet. I will be posting articles on his life and works and would like to get contributions on the subject and opinions/comments from learned people.
posted by M.Veeraraghavan @ 6:51 AM
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Thursday, April 3, 2008
LIFE OF THIRUMAZHISAI ALWAR
BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD
Once maharshis like Athri, Bhrgu, Bhargava, Pulastya,Vasishtha, Angirasa etc approached Brahma to show them a place on earth for their penance. Vishvakarma obeying Brahma’s order weighed the entire world against Thirumazhisai and found that Thirumazhisai has more spiritual power as the balance tilted on its side. The maharshis then lived there and performed their meditation. Bhargava maharshi’s wife after a long duration of 12 months pregnancy gave birth to a child (embryo not fully developed during gestation) that was looking like a lump of flesh. With great disappointment the couple through that lump in a bush of reeds and went away.
That day was a Sunday, after the full moon day, under the star Makha, a day after 27 days in the month of Tai in the year Siddharthi next to 8,62,900th year of Dwapara yuga and the child is a descendant of the weapon Chakra of Narayana.
By Divine Grace the lump of flesh survived and grew into a child and cried out of hunger. Vasudeva the Lord of that holy place in the form of Jagannatha appeared before the child and quenched its thirst with the nectar of his beauty. After the Lord’s disappearance the child started crying longing to see Him again. Tiruvalan engaged in the profession of basketry while collecting reeds for his work found the crying child and with great affection took that child and carried him to his house.
As Tiruvalan and his wife Selvi were not blessed with their own child they were very happy to adopt the child and considered it as Godsend. To the surprise of everybody the child did not consume anything including the milk that spontaneously flowed from his foster mother’s breast out of affection for him and remained pure without releasing any secretions from his body. The child grew healthy with a body glowing with divine charm, without uttering any word or crying and always devoted to Lord Narayana.
MIRACLE OF BESTOWING YOUTH TO OLD VELALA COUPLE
Hearing about this supernatural child a childless old couple belonging to Velala caste approached him one day before sunrise (Brahma muhurta) with great devotion offered him boiled cow’s milk The Alwar accepted the milk for several days. One day, Thirumalisai Alwar, pleased by their devotion, sipped the milk and offered it back to the couple. After consuming this milk, miraculously the couple became young and was blessed with a son by name Kanikannan who became a staunch devotee of Thirumazhisai Alwar.
SPIRITUAL SEARCH AND INITIATION TO SRIVAISHNAVISM
After attaining the age of 7 years Thirumazhisai Alwar left Tiruvalan’s house and sought to attain the Supreme Being through Ashtanga yoga. He studied Buddhism, Vaiseshika, Nyaya, Jainism, Samkhya, Yoga, Saiva, Mayavada, Vedantas of Kumarila Bhatta and Prabhakara in his search for the Supreme Being and spent 700 years of his life in this process. At last, he became a saivite saint. Hearing about him, Pei Alwar occupied a place next to Thirumazhisai Alwar’s place. One day Pei Alwar planted in his garden some plants with roots above the ground and stem of the plants below the ground and started drawing water from the well in a vessel full of holes tied to a damaged rope for watering the plants.. Seeing this Thirumazhisai Alwar asked Pei Alwar whether he is insane or senseless. Pei Alwar replied that Thirumazhisai Alwar is more insane because his search for the Supreme Being through improper means is futile. Thirumazhisai Alwar fell at the feet of Pei Alwar and became his disciple and was initiated to SriVaishavism and experienced Lord Narayana with the help of the divine vision offered by his master.
CONFERMENT OF THE TITLE OF “BHAKTHISARA” BY LORD SIVA
One day, Lord Siva and his consort Parvathi climbed on Vrshabha happened to travel in the sky above a place where Thirumazhisai Alwar was meditating on Lord Narayana. Attracted by the Divine glow of his body Parvathi wanted to know as to who he is. Lord Siva informed Her that previously he was His (Siva’s) devotee and now he is the devotee of Lord Narayana. Parvathi wanted Siva to grant some boon to the saint and made Siva to go near the saint. Thirumazhisai Alwar pretended as though he did not see them and started stitching a torn cloth. Siva asked him as to why he is ignoring Him when He has come with the purpose of granting a boon to him. The Alwar replied that he needs nothing from Lord Siva. Siva said that His visit should not go a waste and insisted the Alwar must seek a boon. The Alwar asked Him whether He could grant him Moksha. Siva replied that Lord Narayana alone is capable of granting Moksha and hence asked the Alwar to seek some other boon. Then the Alwar asked whether He could grant life long enough for him to attain Moksha. Siva answered that the life span is predetermined based on one’s karma. Then the Alwar asked laughingly to grant the boon of making the thread inserted in the needle to move with the needle when he foes on stitching the torn cloth. Outraged by this mockery Siva opened His third eye in His forehead and showered fire on the Alwar. The Alwar opened the eye in the toe of his right foot and the fire emanated from it belittled the fire from Siva’s eye and started causing damage everywhere. Siva then removed one of the matted plaits of His hair and made it to turn into heavy rain bearing clouds and cause heavy rains. Undaunted by the rains Thirumalisai Alwar continued his meditation on Narayana standing in the waters flooded by the rains. Lord Siva was very much impressed by the devotion of the Alwar and conferred him the title of Bhakthisara and returned to His Abode, Kailasa.
ENCOUNTER WITH THE SIDDHA BY NAME SHUKTI HARA
When Bhakthisara was meditating, as usual, a siddha by name Shuktihara sitting on his tiger vahana was traveling in the sky and his tiger did not move due to the spiritual power of Bhaktisara. On knowing that Bhaktisara is the cause for this stoppage the siddha came down and wanted to test the Alwar. He asked the Alwar to remove and throw away the dirty rags he was wearing and accept the silk clothes produced by his magic. By his magic Bhakthisara showed a kavacha on his body embedded with very precious stones and shining like the Sun. Then the siddha offered the Alwar a mala with very precious stones for using it as a japamala. The Alwar showed him his malas made of Tulsi beads and the seedpods of lotus flowers that turned into garlands made with very precious stones. Shukthihara then praised the Alwar and said that there was no siddha in this world as powerful as the Alwar as all those siddhas were defeated by him.
ENCOUNTER WITH KONKANA SIDDHA
On hearing the greatness of Bhakthisara an alchemist by name Konkanasiddha approached him and offered him a small mercuric globule that can turn tons of iron to gold and asked the Alwar to use it and become rich. The Alwar then rolled out a small globule of dirt from his body and said that it had the same qualities of the globule given by the siddha. By testing it on iron the siddha found it true and bowed in veneration to the Alwar and went away.
The anecdotes cited above show that though Thirumalisai Alwar attained ashtanga siddhis he never cared to use them as his goal was to attain the Supreme Abode of Lord Narayana through yoga.
MEETING THE FIRST THREE ALWARS
To avoid disturbance caused to his meditation by others the Alwar left Thirumazhisai and performed yoga in the cave of a mountain. Poigai, Bootham, and Pei Alwars while performing their Divyadesa yatra (pilgrimage to several holy places) happened to meet Thirumazhisai Alwar in the cave. All the four Alwars enjoyed sharing their spiritual experiences and meditated in that cave for some days. Then all the four Alwars traveled to Mylai, the birthplace of Pei Alwar. They performed yoga for some years near the well in which Pei Alwar was born and then the first (three) Alwars continued their Divyadesa yatra.
LOCATING HOLY WHITE MUD FOR WEARING SRIVAISHNAVA SYMBOL
Thirumazhisai Alwar returned to Thirumazhisai and went to collect the white mud from a place where it was available earlier. Failing to find it there the Alwar was very much worried. Lord Venkatesvara appeared in his dream and told him that the white mud is available in a lotus pond near Vekka of Kanchipuram. The Alwar collected required quantity of the mud and happily returned to Thirumazhisai.
After meditating in Thirumazhisai the Alwar traveled to Thiru Vekka.
GRANTING THE BOON OF PERMANENT YOUTH TO AN OLD WOMAN
In Vekka for several years the Alwar was serving the Lord Narayana reclining on the serpent-bed Adi Sesha. Kanikannan came and joined his master and served him and collected alms for their survival. A fully ripe old woman came to their ashram cleaned the place everyday by sweeping the floor smoothening the floor by smearing the paste of cow’s dung and decorating the floor with rangoli. On one day while Thirumazhisai Alwar was opening his eyes after meditation she stood before him with folded hands and requested him to grant her the boon of remaining throughout her life young like a deva kanya. The Alwar granted her boon and the old woman immediately turned into a very beautiful young woman. Pallavarayan king of that place attracted by her beauty married her.
EPISODE OF YATHOKTHAKARI
Years passed by. The king found signs of old age on his own body and was surprised to see no change in the youth of his wife. After learning about the cause for this when Kanikannan came for alms the king asked him to bring the Alwar to him enabling him to serve the Alwar. Kanikannan said that his master never comes out of the temple. Then the king asked him to take him to the master. Kanikannan said that his master would never open his eyes to even look once at persons like him who ever seek mundane pleasures. Ministers of the king told him that even Kanikannan must have acquired powers like his master and if he sings in praise of the king the king would turn young. Kanikannan said that he would sing in praise of lord Narayana only and not in praise of any mortal. On insistence he sang a song in praise of Lord Krishna. Enraged by this the king banished him from his kingdom. Kanikannan narrated the entire incident to his master and sought permission to leave the kingdom.
Thirumazhisai Alwar said that he would also go with him and bring the God with him. The Alwar sang a verse before the God asking the God to rise from the bed and go with him and with Kanikannan. The Arca Murty of the God in the temple moved with his bed and followed the Alwar and Kanikannan as they left the kingdom of Pallavarayan. Gods in all the temples of that kingdom followed them. They stayed away from the kingdom for one night. Occasioned by several bad omens the kingdom lost its effervescence. Realizing his fault the king along with his ministers approached them and fell at the feet of Kanikannan and begged him to pardon him and return to Vekka. The Alwar once again sang a verse before the Lord of Vekka and requested him to return to Vekka with him and Kanikannan. Due to this incident the Lord’s head changed its direction and had occupied the place where his feet were earlier and His head rested on His left hand. Thereafter the Lord of Vekka was known as Yathokthakari meaning ‘one who did what he was asked to do’. Vekka got back its splendor on return of all Gods, the Alwar and Kanikannan. The place where Gods, the Alwar and Kanikannan stayed for one night got the name of Ori(raviru)kkai.
HELP OF BLACK PADDY SEED IN CHANTING OF THE VEDA
On his way to Kumbhakonam in a village by name ‘Perumbuliyur’ the Alwar took rest on a raised platform (thinnai) attached to the house. Not knowing his greatness Brahmins who were reciting the Veda stopped their recitation as people born in low castes are prohibited from listening to the Veda. When the Alwar got up and started moving away the Brahmins found it difficult to continue the chanting as they forgot where they stopped chanting. Sensing this the Alwar turned back picked a black paddy seed from a heap of paddy seeds and peeled it with his nails. The Brahmins realized him as a great bhagavata and fell at his feet. The Alwar started his journey to Kumbhakonam
AGRA POOJA FOR THIRUMAZHISAI ALWAR
The Arca murti in the temple of that village turned his head in the direction of the streets in which Thirumazhisai Alwar moved so that he may easily have His darshan. With great surprise people ran to the Chief Priest (dikshita) of Perumbuliyur and narrated the incident to him. The Dikshita invited the Alwar to his yagashala paying respects with purna kumbha and offered him the Agra pooja. By seeing this other priests of the village objected to that as Sisupala did when Agra pooja was performed to Lord Krshna. The Alwar then sang a verse requesting the God to appear and reveal to them as to who he is. Lord Ranganatha appeared on the chest of the Alwar and everybody present there, fell at the feet of the Alwar and enjoyed the Divine Grace due to his presence.
THIRUMAZHISAI ALWAR AT KUMBHAKONAM
After reaching Kumbhakonam, Thirumazhisai Alwar collected hundreds of Prabandhams written by him and threw them in river Kaveri All of them floated away excepting ‘Nanmugan tiruvandadi’ and ‘Tiruccanda viruttam’. The Alwar felt that these two prabandhams are sufficient for the uplifting those who desire to attain the Supreme Abode of Lord Narayana.
THIRUMAZHISAI ALWAR BECOMES THIRUMAZHISAIPPIRAN
The Lord Aravamaudan of Kumbhakonam liked to accept prasadams offered to Him only after Thirumazhisai Alwar tasted them. Thus Thirumazhisai Alwar attained the status of Piran (that of the Deity) and Aravamudan became the Alwan and they are called as Thirumazhisaippiran and Aravamudalwan. Thirumazhisaippiran attained paramapadam in Kumbhakonam after serving Aravamudalwan for several years.
Thirumazhisai alwar thiruvadigale saranam
Posted by M.Veeraraghavan at 6:19 AM 0 comments
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LIFE OF THIRUMAZHISAI ALWAR
ŚIVAVĀKKIYAR AND TIRUMALIŚAI ĀLVĀR
In ancient India several saints of various faiths lived and enriched the treasure of spiritual knowledge and passed on the truth discovered by them through their literary works made available to us by generations of their followers. Based on the type of pursuit taken up and the level of spiritual attainment of the saints they are called as ‘sādhu’ or ‘sant’, ‘muni’, ‘yogin’, ‘ŗşi’, ‘siddha’, ‘bhakta’, ‘bhāgavata’, ‘ālvār’ or ‘divya sūri’ etc. Our premise in this seminar is on the siddha-s and their contribution for human progress.
Among the siddha-s that lived in Tamilnadu, Śivavākkiyar is well known for his criticism of the caste system and undesirable religious practices. Two of his famous verses are worth mentioning here.
Śādiyāvadēdadā śalam tiraņda nīralō
Pūdavāśalonralō pūdamaindumonralō
Kādilvāļi kāraikambi pādakombononrolō
Śādibēda monruginra tanmayenna tanmayē
(Water is the same whether it is in a pond, a lake, a stream or a river. Though they are five in number (Fire, water, air, space or sky and the earth) they have the same name as bhūtam and the same place to enter known as bhūtavāśal. Though Vāļi, kārai, kambi and pādagam are the names of different ornaments of the ear their content is the same gold. Of what kind is thy nature that discriminates the humans in the name of caste?)
Pūśai pūśai yenru nīr pūśai śeyyum pēdaigāļ
Pūśayunna dannilē pūśai koņda devvidam
Ādipūśai koņdadō vanādi pūśai koņdadō
Ēdu pūśai koņdadō vinnaden ŗiyambudē
(Poor creatures! You perform different kinds of worship. When the recipient of worship is within you will the one who was in the beginning or the one beyond that beginning accept your worship? Let me know who else is pleased by your worship?)
There is a widespread belief that Śivavākkiyar became a vaişnavite and was named as Tirumaliśai ālvār. The source for this claim is said to be the biographies of the Ālvār-s found in the work ‘Guruparamparāprabhāvam – Ārāyirappadi’ written by Śrī Pinbalagiya perumāl jīyar (12th century AD). There are several editions of this work and only in the edition published by Śrī.Ch.Krişņamācāriar and others in 1909 the portion of a sentence that mentions the name of Śivavākkiyar who was initiated to Vaişņavism by Pēyālvār is found . The edition published by Śrī Vaişņavagrantha mudrāpaka sabhā, Kāncīpuram in 1911 by Śri Mādabhūşi Rāmānujācāriar and others does not contain this portion of the sentence. Similarly the book published by Śrī S.Krişņaswāmy Iyyangār, Putthūr also does not mention the name of Śivavākkiyar where Tirumaliśai ālvār’s name is mentioned as Bhārgava kumārar till he was initiated to Vaişņavism. The name of Śivavākkiyar is not found in ‘Divyasūri caritam’, written in Sanskrit verses by Śrī Garudavāhana paņdita who was a contemporary of Bhagavad Rāmānuja. Even in the ‘Divyasūri (Ālvār) caritāni’ written by Bāladhanvi Śrī Jaggu Venkatācārya published in 1969 which is Sanskrit prose translation of Guruparamparā prabhāvam (Ārāyirappadi) there is no mention about Śivavākkiyar. Several such texts can be quoted, and that exercise is beyond the scope of this paper. Śrī M.Śrīnivāsa Iyengār in his “Tamil studies” rightly dismisses, the account given in some editions of Guruparamparā prabhāvam on Śivavākkiyar’s initiation to Vaişņavism, as an interpolation.
Dr T.N.Ganapathy Ph.D Director of the Tamil Siddha Yoga Research Project, Chennai had very clearly stated the difficulties encountered in Siddha research in his book "The Yoga of Tamil Siddha Boganathar". There is great difficulty in identifying interpolations and eliminations in the works of Siddhas due to several reasons. Similarly there is great difficulty in finding out the exact period during which a siddha lived.
Tirumaliśai ālvār is 4th among the 12 Śrī Vaişņava saints of Tamilnādu and believed to belong to the later half of 5th century AD. Śrī Nāthamuni, the first ācārya of Śrī Vaişņavites had identified 216 verses from among the 4000 Divya prabandhams as the works of Tirumaliśai ālvār.
A careful comparative examination of the incidents in the lives of the two saints from the biographies available is attempted below..
Tirumaliśai ālvār was born to Bhārgava maharşi and an apsarasa by name Kanakāngi as an undeveloped form of a child and was thrown in a bamboo bush due to disappointment and this child was taken care of by Lord Jagannātha and his consort goddess Lakşmi till it was discovered by a childless bamboo cutter by name Tiruvālan who adopts the child and brings it up. Whereas, Śivavākkiyar was born to parents who were potters by profession who moulded images of gods with mud and made their living by selling them as seen in songs 434 and 435 of “Agasthiar 12000” . As per legend the child uttered ‘Śiva, Śiva’ at the time it was born and hence named as Śivavākkiyar.
Desirous of learning Aşţānga yoga Tirumaliśai ālvār left his foster parents and visited several places and studied thoroughly philosophies which do not accept the Vedas such as Bouddha, Jaina, Cārvaka etc and philosophies which interpret the Vedas in an inadvertent manner like Nyāya, Vaiśēşşika, Śaiva etc and at last realizes that Lord Narayana is the Supreme Being as per the Vedas and leads the life of a Śrī Vaişņava. Living in the midst of siddhas, the parents of Śivavākkiyar took him to gurus who imparted the knowledge and discipline of the siddhas.
There are no parallel incidents in the birth, childhood and education of these two saints. Those who were misguided by the interpolation conveniently adopted the Ālvār’s version of the life on birth, childhood and education in their story of Śivavākkiyar as they overlooked other texts on the subject. They started mentioning that Śivavākkiyar was born in the Tamil month of Tai under the star Makha. Later on, mix-up of incidents found in these texts is narrated causing more confusion. In his Tamil book named “Vaiņavattin Ālvārgal kālanilai” Dr.S.Kulasekaran mentions that Pattinattār’s “Tiruvidaimarudūr mummaņik kōvai” fixes the date of Śivavākkiar later to Tēvāra mūvar and even after Māņickavācakar (later part of 9th CE) and states that there is possibility of mixing up the works of earlier Śivavākkiyar who became Tirumaliśai Ālvār with that of the second Śivavākkiyar. He did not elaborate this point by giving any proof or illustrations. Thus, available sources on the life of Śivavākkiyar (or Śivavākkiyars) do not give any scope to show that he became a Vaişņava.
There is no mention about the marriage of Tirumaliśai Ālvār in any of the texts. Śivavākkiyar married a woman of kurava community at the age of 51 as she proved her obedience by accepting without hesitation to cook sand and a bitter bottle gourd for his food and lived with her in her parents’ house and earned his livelihood by cutting bamboos and selling winnows made of bamboo. Incidents that took place in the lives of the Ālvār and Śivavākkiyar as found in their life sketches do not have any similarities excepting that both of them knew some sort of alchemy by which they could convert other substances to gold.
In his pamphlet on ‘The poetry and the philosophy of the Tamil siddhars-an essay in criticism’ Śrī A.V.Subramania aiyar vehemently opposes the views expressed by Śrī M.Śrīnivāsa Iyengār which he quotes as follows:
“There is such a close resemblance in the metre and the harmonic flow of the poems of Sivavakkiyar and our Alwar as to make one to believe that both the poems were composed by one and the same author. Further some of the stanzas occurring in both are almost identical and had the present Copyright Act been in force then either of them have been prosecuted under it……But Sivavakkiyar is a theist belonging to the Siddhar school and lived at least eight or nine centuries posterior to our saint. The style of Tirumalisaiyar is sublime and philosophic, while that of Sivavakkiyar is insipid and at times vulgar. The story in the Guruparamparai connecting the saintly Tirumalisai Piran with the iconoclastic Sivavakkiyar must, therefore, be a later interpolation.”
There are six verses in Tiruccandaviruttam (verses 1,2,3,17,77 and 79) of Tirumaliśai Ālvār which use numbers as symbols to represent philosophic concepts. The number of verses and their order is fixed in ‘Nālāyira divyaprbandham’ as the mnemonic form of remembering the first word and the last word of the verses known as ‘adi varavu’ is adopted by all those that chant the verses. The songs of siddas do not have a set order and their number varies from one edition to the other. These six verses are found in the songs of Śivavākkiyar also with very minor variations in different texts. (verses310,269,268,266,270 and 271 respectively as quoted for comparison by Śrī Subramania aiyar). Srī Subramania aiyar admits under this foot-note at page 40 that ‘it is unfortunate that the text of Śivavākkiyar’s poems in all available editions is corrupt and still awaits an able and honest editor.’ Finding the same verses in the works of both the saints probably some claim is made that Śivavākkiyar and Tirumaliśai Ālvār are one and the same person and this led to the interpolation in ‘Guruparamparā prabhāvam –ārāyirappadi). Śrī Subramania aiyar attributes refinement in the language of Tiruccanda viruttam to ‘later intellectual refinement and spiritual maturity’ of Śivavākkiyar. While trying to oppose the expression ‘insipid’ attributed to the style of Śivavākkiyar, Aiyar admits that his style is ‘at times vulgar’ due to his bluntness and the use of common speech of the people. He concludes thus, “….verses quoted above belong to that class of poetry where mere numerals have been used freely and fully to express philosophic and mystic ideas. This is on the authentic Siddhar pattern of Tirumular. The inference is therefore irresistable that the two sets of the almost identical stanzas given should be traced to the same person. No other Alwar seems to have adopted this pattern” The following weaknesses are found in the arguments of Śrī Subramania aiyar.
1. To argue that the six verses belong to Śivavākkiyar when no authentic edition of his songs is available as admitted by him
2. To introduce his own belief of mental maturity of the same individual as a cause for different styles of expression where the difference in the styles belongs to two different periods in Tamil literature. and
3. To say that no other Ālvār uses numerals to indicate philosophic concepts when Tirumangai Ālvār’s ‘Tiruvezhukūŗŗirukkai’ uses numerals to indicate philosophic concepts.
No authentic proof is available to show that Śivavākkiyar and Tirumaliśai ālvār
are one and the same person. It is but prudent to treat them as two different poets, one with the purpose of reforming the society as per Tamil siddars’ school and the other with pure devotion (bhakti) of Ālvārs.
(Paper submitted by M.Veeraraghavan, Reg.no.127, for the Second World Conference on Siddha Philosophy to be held on 26th to 28th December 2008, Chennai)
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